The head of the US Olympic Committee has broken her silence on LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman, saying organizers “have very high standards of behavior” after his ties to Jeffrey Epstein were revealed.
CEO Sarah Hirshland’s remarks come after the release of Justice Department documents showing sexually charged email exchanges between Wasserman and Epstein madam Ghislaine Maxwell.
While Wasserman has not been accused of any crime, the revelations have increased pressure on the LA28 organizing team, including a call for his resignation from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
Speaking from Milan on Friday, Hirshland stated her priority is to maintain an organizational culture based on safety and trust.
“We’ve worked really hard over the last several years to build a culture and to instill trust in our athletes in particular, that we’re an organization that stands for the right values, that we have very high standards of behavior that we expect,” Hirshland said in an interview.
“Respect comes at the heart of that.”
Last week, following an internal investigation, the LA28 board affirmed its support for Wasserman despite ongoing calls for him to step down.
Hirshland, who also serves on the LA28 governing board, said that decisions about Wasserman’s future rest with the board as a whole.
“I am a member of that board. That’s no secret,” she said. “It is the board’s responsibility to make sure it is governing properly.”
Wasserman has tried to distance himself from the fallout and last week put his talent agency up for sale.
In a statement released before traveling to the Winter Olympics, he noted that the emails were sent “long before [Maxwell’s] horrific crimes came to light.”
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking and the abuse of minors.
